Tiffany Cence

ISMS of Education

There are a few "isms" of education to be discussed. These firstly begin with
idealism. Plato founded idealism in Greece way back in 428 BCE. A few other
mentionable contributors are Georg W. F. Hegel, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry
David Thoreau. Ralph and Henry were the two founders of an American version of
idealism. Idealism has some key points to be touched on. For instance, Idealists believe
that the spiritual, nonmaterial world is real so it can be assumed that they are very
spiritual teachers. This being said, they are most likely to be found in religious schools but that does not mean they cannot teach in public schools. For Idealists, philosophy,
history, and literature are rich sources. They use terms such as macrocosm (universal
mind -God-), microcosm (personal mind), priori ideas (ideas lodged in our mind that we
are not aware of), and the Socratic method. The Socratic method is my personal favorite
and one I am most familiar with. It is where a teacher uses leading questions to stimulate
the learner's mind, often in "Socratic seminars" where a large discussion is being held.
Charles S. Peirce, William James, George Herbert Mead, and John Dewey founded
pragmatism. Peirce was particularly fond of the scientific method to test the validity of
our ideas while Dewey began to use terms such as "organism" and "environment."
Pragmatists believe that education is experimental. Realism is commonly found in the
school place with strong usage of the scientific method and inductive and deductive
reasoning. In realism, knowledge is always about an object and realists assume reality is
outside of the mind, which is the opposite of what Plato assumed in idealism. Most
teachers throughout my high school career have been realists. Set aside from scientific
approaches, existentialism takes on more of a philosophical approach examining one's
own life and choices. Existentialism focuses on angst and believes that teachers should
discuss their own lives with their students while encouraging students to question their
hopes, dreams, and fears. Postmodernism assumes the modern era had ended thus
thrusting us into a postmodern era. The postmodernism idea originated from Friedrich
Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. Postmodernism encourages collaborative learning
through the use of language and often focuses on social inequalities. Postmodernist
teachers also argue that public schools favor men over women along with many other
unequal claims.
Through many of these "isms" I identified a few of my past teachers. One who
clearly stood out to me would be Mrs. Montanaro. She would be identified as an idealist
and existentialist teacher. She wasn't so much on the spiritual side, at least not in class,
but we often held Socratic seminars and large group discussions. She also stressed how
important it was to truly find ourselves through weekly journal entries that were open to
anything of our choice. I suppose I would base by philosophy of education a lot off of her
due to the amount she had taught and inspired me. I myself would prefer to come about
teaching in an idealist and existentialist approach. Socratic seminars give the opportunity
for everyone to speak up and voice their opinion while learning and trying to accept or
intellectually argue with somebody else's. It practices public speaking skills and would
help with confidence in front of others that too many children lack in this era. In the
existentialist aspect, finding yourself can be one of the hardest things you can do. To be
able to help children do that would be a gift. Many children go through horrible things
such as sexual assaults, abuse, divorce and parent issues, and much more. If I could
provide a class where they could come for a short period of the day and be able to focus
on them, and who THEY want to be - not who the world or society is saying they are - I

Tiffany Cence

ISMS of Education

would feel like I had successfully done my job.

Ornstein, Allan C., Daniel U. Levine, and Allan C. Ornstein. "Educational Theories."
Foundations of Education. 11th ed. CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. 169-87.
Print.